The first meeting between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, began with a handshake analyzed around the world.
The meeting between Trump and Putin, though only slotted to last for half an hour, wound up running for more two hours, according to reports by NBC News and CNN. In order to prevent leaking, Trump insisted that only six people enter the room where he and Putin talked — himself, Putin, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and two interpreters, according to a report by The New York Times.
"I hope that, as you have said, our meetings will yield positive results," Putin said before the meeting.
The meeting opened with Trump talking about the 2016 election. Putin denied involvement.
According to Lavrov, Trump accepted Putin's position that Russia wasn't involved. Tillerson was more forceful, however.
One possible achievement from the meeting: A ceasefire in southeastern Syria between Russia and America was announced during their meeting, according to a report by the Associated Press. The ceasefire will take effect at noon Damascus time on Sunday.
If there's something else to take from the meeting between Trump and Putin (aside from the pesky allegations that the latter meddled in the election which empowered the former), it that we can finally say that the two have met. This follows years of admissions and denials that they've come face to face..
If nothing else, this meeting eliminates the possibility that Trump will deny knowing Putin in the future. And given Putin's disparaging quip at the expense of reporters ("These are the ones that insulted you?"), it seems like they at least commiserated over their mutual disdain for journalistic criticism.
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